Man broke child's leg, police say

Joseph Contreras, 20, of Big Spring, was arrested on injury to a child charges after a 2-year-old under his care suffered a broken leg, police say.

A Big Spring man was arrested late last week on a charge of injury to a child – serious bodily injury after a 2-year-old victim was taken to the emergency room at Scenic Mountain Medical Center with a broken leg.

Joseph Contreras, 20, was arrested Friday at a relative's home in the 1600 block of Virginia after officials with the SMMC emergency room became suspicious of the child's injuries and called law enforcement officers.

“Officers responded to the emergency room in reference to an injured child. The hospital staff had found the injuries to be suspicious,” Sgt. Tony Everett, public information officer with the Big Spring Police Department, said in a press release issued Monday afternoon. “Officers discovered a 2-year-old male had suffered a broken leg. The child also had some bruising in his facial area, as well.

“The child's mother had brought him to the emergency and told officers she had left the child with her boyfriend, Contreras, at her apartment at 1002 N. Main St. while she took her oldest child to school. When she returned home she found the 2-year-old had been injured and took him to the hospital.”

The child was later transferred to a hospital in Lubbock, according to police officials, with serious but not life-threatening injuries.